Monday

Sitting Courtside

Yesterday, courtesy of a new business contact of Jon's, we were invited to attend the UW Madison Badger men's basketball game against Northwestern. When a last minute change had us with two extra tickets and without the kind donor, we took our friends Emmie and Brian (a Madison alum) to the game. AND here's where we sat:

Yeah, that's me five feet from the ref with my toes on the court and a smile camouflaging a serious concern that one of massive players would A, land on me and force me back over the chair with my rear end up in the air and on TV for the entire world or B, miss a pass and I'd take one for the team to the head. It was awesome. Here is Jon's foot next to the court:

We sat next to radio announcers Matt Lepay and Mike Lucas. "That was Trevon Hughes's 1,000th foul shot at home!" The random sports facts and trivia that sportscasters like to throw out during the game? They come from an incredibly organized system of information:

Hah! Not even sure those notes were written by a human or in English. As you can see, these were ridiculous seats. You could actually feel the floorboards move with the players' steps (the Kohl Center also serves as the hockey rink and sells out 17,230 seats every game). And eavesdrop on the players' conversations on court. Gossip and drama! Love it!

Our friend Brian, a devoted Badger basketball fan who attended when they made it to the Final Four, had a look of glee for the entire day (two of the tickets were for a floor-level suite, and we swapped with each other at half time). Jon stated that since we did not go to a Big Ten school and as such, did not have any special allegiance to serious college sports, he was willing to begin a 'hometown' relationship with the Badgers, "because our seats will never get any better than this." To which I agreed.

Though sitting courtside at a Big Ten basketball game is not really the basis of a real relationship, and I informed Jon this would be more like a one night stand for us. Courtside wasn't going to date us, let alone take us out for breakfast.